Three Rooms Press is a fierce New York-based independent publisher inspired by dada, punk and passion. Founded in 1993, it serves as a leading independent publisher of cut-the-edge creative, including fiction, memoir, poetry translations, drama and art.

Join us this Friday for two STRONG women poets at the Fabulous Son of a Pony reading series in the wondrous basement performance space of Cornelia Street Cafe. Caoline Gilfillan and Marty McConnell will rock your world--be sure to catch them (as well as join in NYC's most varied open poetry reading).

Caroline Gilfillan was brought up in Sussex and spent her formative years in east London writing, playing in various bands, and working in publishing and education. She’s written poetry all her life, and her work was published in Seven Women and One Foot on the Mountain early in her writing career. Her poem The Painter was nominated for the Forward Prize for the best individual poem in 2007 and her work appeared in the Forward Collection of Poetry in the same year. She was a winner of the North West Poetry competition in 2000, and Drowned in Overspill, a collection of her poetry, was published by Crocus Booksin the same year. Yes, her new collection, was published by the Hawthorn Press in December 2009.

For nearly a decade, poet Marty McConnell co-curated the flagship reading series of the New York City-based louderARTS Project, which featured poets including Yusef Komunyakaa, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Dorianne Laux, and more. She appeared on both the second and fifth seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She returned to Chicago in 2009 to co-found Vox Ferus, an organization dedicated to empowering and energizing individuals and communities through the written and spoken word. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies, including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Movement, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, Women of the Bowery, Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader, Bullets and Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry, Will Work for Peace, Women.Period and In Our Own Words: Poetry of Generation X, as well as journals including Salt Hill Review, Rattapallax, Fourteen Hills, Pedestal, Boxcar Poetry Review, The November 3rd Club, Thirteenth Moon, 2River View, Lodestar Quarterly, Blue Fifth Review, and Rattle. She recently relocated to Chicago so don't miss this rare opportunity to catch back on NYC turf.

The featured readings follow the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet/convivial mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Next time you're in the mood for a night of phenomenal new jazz, check your local jazz calendar to find either the E.J. Strickland Group or Marcus Strickland Trio and go check them out.

Twins Marcus (on soprano & tenor sax) and E.J. (on drums) are phenomenal musical forces. Both are composers as well as players and at Small's on Saturday night E.J.'s group was happening— playing a late night set of cookin' cool jazz originals, plus a steamin' version of Wayne Shorter's ESP.

With Joe Sanders and bass, Fabian Almazan on piano and Jaleel Shaw on alto, the band started the set with two of E.J.'s pieces dedicated to jazz drummer legend Elvin Jones. With intricate melodic lines and an underlying pulsing, inspired stickwork by E.J., the pieces set the packed house on fire. But it was a few more tunes into the set, with the ballad "In This Day," that the band really hit a groove. The song is the title track on E.J.'s 2009 CD debut (produced by Ravi Coltrane). On the CD, the track is preceded by and built upon a poem, as E.J. explained (during a long break in which Marcus' soprano broke, and--because Small's is so cool--someone in the audience happened to have a soprano sax for him to borrow). The tune is a real wonder.

Marcus plays with great tone and style on even an unfamiliar horn, swinging through an intelligent and soulful theme, with E.J. tripping around and over and under the beat with melodic stickwork. The tune elicits a feeling of a musical diary of a full urban day--starting slowly at sunrise, coming to live in an daytime rush hour mayhem, then relaxing into a gentle groove of luscious nighttime scenery, and sluicing into a final mood akin to a lullaby.

The set ended with special guest jazz guitarist David Gilmore sitting in on Shorter's ESP, with solos all around and E.J. in particular displaying extensive dynamic range.

Power poet Peter Carlaftes will launch his first full-length poetry collection, DrunkYard Dog (156 pages, Three Rooms Press, 2010) at the venerable Son of a Pony Poetry Reading Series on Friday, June 18, 6 p.m. at Cornelia St. Cafe.

Carlaftes work has been described as "a beautiful poetic voice, filled with drop-dead humor, searing insight and reselient originality, even while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Baudelarie and Bogart." He discovered his poetic voice on the playgrounds of the Bronx, and, after seeing the world, branched out to the bars of Manhattan. According to Carlaftes, DrunkYard Dog offers poems from "both sides of the bar," and marks his third Three Rooms Press release in 2010, following A Year on Facebook (humor) and Triumph for Rent (three plays).

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet/convivial mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

PETER CARLAFTES, comic author, screenwriter, playwright, actor and poet, authored A Year on Facebook (humor), Triumph for Rent (3 Plays) and hot off the press—Drunkyard Dog (poems from both sides of the bar).

GEORGE WALLACE, award winning poet and journalist, is author of Poppin' Johnny: New American Poems along with 18 chapbooks. He's also editor of poetrybay magazine (poetrybay.com)

Poet/playwright KAT GEORGES has three collections of poetry, Punk Rock Journal, Maiden Claiming and Slow Dance at 120 Beats a Minute. She's the founder and editor-in-chief of Three Rooms Press.

PLUS: The Fabulous S.A. GRIFFIN will be the host of the whole shebang! What could be better?

What's their stuff like? Check out these comments:

“ George Wallace has managed to infuse the soul of music into a surreal trip through the heartland of America.”

“ Peter Carlaftes is a brilliant poetic voice, filled with drop-dead humor, searing insight and resilient originality, even while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Baudelaire and Bogart.”

Hidden Wheel

Hidden Wheel, Michael T. Fournier's debut novel, is an unflinching, reflection of the growing complexities of navigating art, commerce, and the internet. Its use of intersecting plotlines illustrates the confusion and potential of the early 21st century and the evolving ways in which its inhabitants try to make a mark in the specter of financial upheaval and shifting technologies.

Inheriting Craziness is LIke a Soft Halo of Light

Thomas Fucaloro's spectacular first collection of poetry is a beautiful, raw, intense read. According to Emily Kagan Trenchard, curator of the louderARTS Project, "Thomas Fucaloro’s particular gift is to harness the crazed wisdom at the bottom of the bottle, to scrape a fleck of beauty from the underside of a binge, and to call madness by a name so familiar we can’t help but recognize it in ourselves." In these 57 poems, Fucaloro brings to light new angles of perception of madness, addiction and modern urban living. Each poem takes risks in form and content. As author Jon Sands notes, "To read Thomas is to literally discover each line with him. There's really nothing he won't say. He's as surprised as you are."

DRUNKYARD DOG

DrunkYard Dog by Peter Carlaftes is a collection by a new poetic master who has honed his intense, insightful and inspiring poetic voice on the playgrounds of the Bronx, and the bars of Manhattan. Tales of bartender blues and bliss, injected with hope in a mileau of madness swirl into a powerful poetic cocktail. Carlaftes offers a brilliant poetic voice, filled with drop-dead humor, searing insight and resilient originality, even while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Baudelaire and Bogart.

TRIUMPH FOR RENT

Playwright Peter Carlaftes presents three compelling, funny and biting dramas in Triumph for Rent: Three Plays (Three Rooms Press, 182 pages, 2010). The plays include Spin-Dry: An hilarious wild ride through a 90s rehab center for celebrities; Hunger: inspired by the Knut Hamsun novel; and Frontier A-Go-Go, a time travel piece uniting the hippie 60s, nerd/rave 90s and techno future. "As with Strindberg, Beckett, or even Satre—Carlaftes' message seems to be something we intuit . . . like music." SF Weekly.

A Year On Facebook

Peter Carlaftes has built a huge FB following and kept them in stitches with his hysterical status updates. A year's worth are collected here. This will have you ROTFL for months! 184 pages, $13.95

WHEN NIGHT SALUTES THE DAWN

TWITTER THEATER

Award-winning playwright Larry Myers delivers a vital and funny play about networking phenomenon Twitter, that examines the profound changes technology has brought to society and theater.

PROGRESSIVE SHOTS

In the final book of his Bar Poems series, Poet Peter Carlaftes produces a rare riot, full of humor, insight and drop dead originality, while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Budelaire and Bogart. Info: threeroomspress@mac.com

MARY ANDERSON'S ENCORE

In “Mary Anderson’s Encore,” award-winning international playwright Larry Myers explores the great American tragedienne, Mary Anderson, who skyrocketed to fame with her first role, and retired by age 30. Called by the New York Daily News “One of Off-Broadway’s wittiest & more prolific playwrights,” Myers’ works have been seen in Rome, Italy at Teatro Olimpico & Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival, as well as Anchorage, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Louis­ville, San Francisco & Los Angeles.

PRAISE FOR WHAT REMAINS

Angelo Verga's epic new poem roams the territory of Wall Street greed, blasts apart sacred cows of the finance community and in unparalleled beautific poetic form, dissects the clotted heart of the beast that led to the unprecedented global financial crisis. A must read for anyone losing their faith in the system.

SIT YR ASS DOWN OR YOU AIN'T GETTING NO BURGER KING

Dominique Lowell, the "Janis Joplin of Spoken Word," has come back with a powerful punch with her first book in 10 years. Be prepared to be blown away by this one.

WE ARE RELATED

by Susan Scutti. The East Coast has been familiar with Susan Scutti's dynamic and heartfelt work for years. Now she has collected the best of her most recent work in a stunning volume that addresses issues of aging parents, alzheimer's, memories of youth and her enduring love for New York City. At times tender, other times terse, Scutti's direct style belies a deeper complexity, while allowing for multiple levels of enjoyment. A real jewel, hot off the press.

Sheer Bardom

Take one part Bukowski, one part Baudelaire, and one part raw New York energy and stir. You still won't get close to the beat of Pete, in his lively poems that uncover the beauty of the horror of death and life in the Big Apple.

Splitting Hairs

A new voice joins the Three Rooms Press roster: The Bass Player from Hand Job. His witty, incisive poems compel the reader to rethink ideas--such as "global warming"--which have been manipulated by the media to the point of redefinition. This book is for the reader who wants to get to the core of everything, with a free form that moves from rant to poetic beauty in the space of a stanza.

to[o] long

Jackie Sheeler celebrates the release of her first Three Rooms Press book, to[o] long, a hard-hitting collection of prose poems that delve into the intricacies of urban sex, love, loss and redemption. Available now!

One Foot Out the Door

One Foot Out the Door, poems by Karen Hildebrand is a stunning collection of work, that paints crisp, dagger-like images of love and beauty in this era of self-imposed disconnection from both.

Slow Dance at 120 Beats A Minute

NOW OUT! The long-awaited poetry collection by Kathi Georges. In the voice of various personae, Georges tackles the taboo in 10 poems that explore the highs and lows of the female psyche in the bizarre creature we call the "Modern World." $8. Reserve your copy now by emailing threereoomspress@mac.com